Dickov Proud Of His Battlers

05 November 2011 08:30

"We played 79 minutes with 10 men yet had 57% possession"

Paul Dickov was proud of his team even though they lost 2-0 at home to neighbours Bury. He was pleased with the battling qualities that they showed after they had to play almost 80 minutes with just 10 men. Goalkeeper Alex Cisak was dismissed after bringing down danger man Andy Bishop and reserve keeper Paul Gerrard was called upon to return to league play for the Latics after an absence of 15 years.

The first thing that Gerrard was asked to do was to face Bishop for a penalty kick and he guessed right and saved the spot kick low to his left. However, Bishop had the last laugh as he snatched both of Bury's goals. The Latics manager commented after the game, "The boys were magnificent in the second half. We played 79 minutes with 10 men yet had 57% possession, more shots on and off target and we were also the better side. When you are up against it, you sometimes need a bit of luck and we didn't enjoy any. I was proud of my players in the second half. The effort and application, football we played and chances we created was magnificent. Bury had more possession in the first half without ever hurting us. We switched off twice from crosses for the goals which is becoming a problem we need to sort out. Other than that, however, we were pretty comfortable. I am disappointed for the 10 players to have put in so much effort and get nothing from it. We must take the positives from the game into a big cup game against Crewe on Tuesday."